A00001 - Mitsuye Endo, Japanese World War II Detainee Who Won Supreme Court Case Overturning Her Detainment
Mitsuye "Maureen" Endo Tsutsumi ( Japanese : 遠藤 ミツエ , [1] May 10, 1920 – April 14, 2006) was an American woman of Japanese descent who was placed in an internment camp during World War II . [2] [3] Endo filed a writ of habeas corpus that ultimately led to a United States Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. government could not continue to detain a citizen who was "concededly loyal" to the United States. [4] Early life [ edit ] Mitsuye Endo was born on May 10, 1920, in Sacramento, the second of four children of Jinshiro and Shima (Ota) Endo, Japanese immigrants. Her father worked as a fishmonger in a grocery store, her mother a housewife. [5] She grew up in an English-speaking Methodist home. [6] Her older brother Kunio, was drafted into the U.S. Army. [7] By 1940, they resided in one of the largest Japantowns in the country, a neighborhood in Sacramento, California that was home to 3,300 res...